It’s 6 am and your alarm is blaring, pulling you out of yet another restless sleep. The sun is barely up as you pull on your work clothes, zombie-walk to your coffee maker and wait for your mug to slowly fill up. In the interim, you sleepily check your Facebook, Instagram, and email before rushing out to work on an empty stomach.

If you’re one of the thousand Australians, this is a familiar morning. Familiar, repetitive, draining and depressing.

Our modern-day minds are constantly fixated on productivity – how will we work, what will we do, how will get there – and thus, left exhausted. Ironically, we often become less productive.

You don’t have to keep living like this.

Meditation is one of the best – yet simplest – way to take a breather and recharge our bodies and minds. In essence, meditation is a state of inner peace, achieved through a quiet and unreactive mind. It can take a number of forms but it’s as easy as focusing on your breathing for a few minutes a day and taking it from there.

The benefits are physical, mental, emotional and countless. Without further ado, here are the top 3 reasons to start meditating daily for a better, happier and more productive you.

1. Less Stress Equals Better You

It’s only recently that we’ve discovered that our brains are plastic, a Play-Dough that is designed to adapt constantly. That brings about two pieces of good news: 1) we can learn the piano through practice and 2) we can foster well-being and happiness. How? Through meditation, of course.

A recent study revealed that daily meditation over 8 weeks resulted in a reduction in the size of the amygdala – the part of the brain responsible for stress, fear, and other fight-or-flight responses. The decrease in stress within the body alone results in a cascade of physical effects – think better sleep, fewer migraines, better blood pressure, less chronic pain, etc.

2. Ward Away The Blues

Meditation, in all its simplicity, may just be able to treat the ‘untreatable’ - mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. In conjunction with medical treatment such as therapy and psychology tools, meditation can help fight occasional blues to serious onsets of depressive episodes.

Anxiety sufferers are prone to excessive worry whilst depression has a tendency to fixate sufferers on the notion that they have no worth. Meditation can aid in the control and management of such detrimental thoughts, while medical treatment can help eliminate them altogether.

When you’re fighting against an invisible enemy, you need all the help you can get. Let meditation be on your side and help you win your battle against mental illness.

3. Happy Pill, No Side Effects

Meditation helps you become master of your own mind. Contrary to popular belief, meditation doesn’t make you emotionless or smother your emotions into cottony bliss. Emotions and thoughts, in all their strength, will be felt but you’ll also have a clear space for it. By becoming aware of the thoughts that cross through it, you become capable of identifying and acknowledging bad thoughts and elevating positive ones.

The result is a greater capacity for empathy and compassion towards others.

Cheers to a happier you and happier relationships with those around you!

These 3 reasons to start meditating daily are merely a drop in the ocean of what meditation can offer to you. It’s really no wonder why millions around the world are jumping on the bandwagon. Meditation is as simple as a few minutes of focus when you wake up; try it for yourself!